The War to Be Human, Essay Example

Women Studies: Critical Analysis and Reflective Questions

The war on terrorism is the war to be human and, according to Tadiar, this war does not leave any room for those who want to preserve their human nature. Without any clear goals, aimed to defeat the opponent by all possible means, limited to violence and oppression, the war on terrorism creates an image of the United States as of the country, which does not have any respect toward human rights. The U.S. violent position denies the relevance of human rights in countries which do not support American policies, and the principle “if you are not with us you are against us” has already become the determining feature of the U.S. discriminative expansion to the east (Tadiar 92).

In the context of the American war on terrorism the two dominant themes emerge. First, it is the systemic character of changes, which manifest through the development of new beliefs, attitudes, and norms. The war on terrorism is no longer a violent attack on other nations. Rather, it exemplifies a successful tool of propaganda “for the protection of human rights”. Second, when the war on terrorism becomes an effective instrument of violating even the basic human rights, how can the United States guarantee that these violations do not extend to cover other areas of social and societal activity? Can the United States guarantee that sexual violence against women does not transform and is not used to protect women from some form of oppression? Can the country protect women from sexual violence and abuse, when the state, itself, promotes the use of such violence as one of its political and cultural norms? Tadiar is correct, saying that we should bolster our dissent against this war and hold fast to the unremitting refusal to be used as fuel for it (96). When women become a fuel for the war which does not make any sense, only life practices and the struggle for the living can reduce the imminent violence threat (Tadiar 96).

Question: Are there or can there be any life practices, which society could adopt to support women and other population groups in bolstering their dissent against violent wars, including sexual abuse?

Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide

Sexual violence is not the product of legal violations but is the result of multiple cultural practices which influence each other and intersect. The incidence of sexual violence against particular ethnic groups confirms the systemic character of the issue and calls for systemic analysis and policy solutions. In the context of Native American communities, sexual violence symbolizes and closely resembles the American war on terrorism, in which the need for and striving to eliminate cultural oppression is effectively used to justify violent attacks. The government applies to freedom-from-oppression arguments to defend its position; in the same manner, “colonizers argue that they are actually freeing Native women from the ‘oppression’ they supposedly face in Native nations” (Smith 259). What happens to smaller Native American communities is just a reflection of the broader shifts in cultural consciousness, which takes racism for granted and uses its benefits to satisfy societal need for violence.

There is still a persistent contradiction between the role of the state in creating conditions that favor violence and deterring this violence (Smith 263). The impression persists that everything done to reduce violence in smaller cultural communities is done so to create a false picture of societal activity, which in no way can resolve the existing and emerging violence issues. Legal methods and rape centers only strengthen the colonial state framework and do not lead to any, even the slightest, improvements (Smith 264). Given the cultural nature of violence, eradicating violence is only possible by creating an entirely new cultural picture of the world without misogyny and racism (Smith 264).

Question: What can society do to embed the vision of the world without racism into the set of its cultural and social norms, and is historical amnesia possible?

Poverty and Precarity

Poverty is integrally linked to and often serves an effective source of various cultural norms. Writing about poverty without any distinct knowledge of what it is and how it works has already become one of the definitive cultural practices in western societies. Understanding poverty without being a part of it is hardly possible, because poverty is not limited to the lack of financial resources but has broader social and cultural implications. These implications are difficult to understand, unless society can open itself to poverty, acknowledge it, and become a part of its social form. Dorothy Day claims that “we need always to be thinking and writing about poverty, for if we are not among its victims its reality fades from us”.

Yet, it is still unclear whether participating in poverty can help to develop more effective poverty approaches and whether participating or being closer to poverty is a reliable method of reducing and eradicating these poverty trends. Another problem is in what constitutes true poverty, and what criteria individuals and groups must meet to assume a role of a poverty agent which seeks to explore the hidden poverty complexities. Finally, aren’t there any means to research poverty and related issues other than being poor? When Day writes that there is often nothing left to the poor, she consciously or unconsciously implies that to eradicate poverty is virtually impossible. Because society cannot eradicate poverty, the poor should have the support needed to make their ends meet. However, those who choose to be poor in order to eliminate poverty only add to the growing pool of the poor and create a vicious circle of cultural controversies. To be poor becomes culturally acceptable and even desirable, but the validity of the assumption that being poor helps to reduce poverty is rather questionable.

Question: if society cannot reduce and address poverty without being poor, does that also mean that to explore and reduce violence against women, society must engage in violence?

Works Cited

Day, D. “Poverty and Precarity.”

Smith, A. “Sexual Violence and the American Indian Genocide.”

Tadiar, N. “The War to Be Human/Becoming Human in a Time of War.”